Police Seek Owners for Final Few Vehicles

Police are seeking owners for the final few vehicles remaining in Christchurch’s CBD.

Police are asking vehicle owners who have yet to retrieve their vehicle from the Christchurch CBD to bring their keys down to the Vehicle Recovery Centre at the Armagh Street entrance to Hagley Park as soon as possible.

“If you haven’t already given us your keys, then please come down and drop them off as soon as possible. If you are unable to drop the keys off because you are out of town or live elsewhere then please try to arrange to have a family member or friend bring the keys down to us,” said Snr Sergeant Graham Reeves.

“If you have a vehicle in the CBD or know of a vehicle in the CBD that hasn’t been recovered then make sure you let Police know or drop the key to us,” he said.

Police are no longer systematically extracting vehicles from car parks in the CBD but are working through a process to match up vehicles, keys and owners; and to extract any remaining vehicles.

Police are also holding 170 vehicles at the Vehicle Recovery Centre and encourage owners to come down and collect them as soon as possible during opening hours (8am to 6pm Monday to Friday).

They are also holding keys for a further 145 vehicles and are working through a process to identify the status of these vehicles.

“Structural damage to buildings and damage to vehicles themselves means that in some cases, although we’ve done everything we possibly can, we haven’t been able to retrieve a vehicle. This may be a situation where a building has suffered structural damage or flooding, or the vehicles themselves are significantly damaged and not able to be easily removed,” Snr Sgt Graham Reeves said.

“We are continuing to work through the tricky cases now and continue to make every effort to get every car out we can, if the safety of the environment allows it,” he said.

All vehicles have now been removed from the Crowne Plaza car park. The basement of the car park flooded as a result of the earthquake and needed to be pumped out. Police have tried to contact all of the owners of vehicles in the Crowne Plaza to let them know that their vehicle has now been removed, Snr Sgt Reeves said.

To date Police have recovered 4613 vehicles from the Christchurch Central Business District.

“This has been a huge, combined effort by Police, USAR and engineers. We’ve worked tirelessly to extract vehicles from the most difficult places. If a vehicle hasn’t been retrieved it is because it is in a situation of extreme danger or it’s been impossible to extract.”

If you have a query about your vehicle you can email the Vehicle Recovery Team at christchurchvehiclerecovery@police.govt.nz

ENDS

© Scoop Media